1965 MG 1100 Sports Sedan Restoration

In July 2006, I started the process of restoring a 1965 MG 1100. So far all I have done is disassembly, parts repair/restoration, cleaning, sorting and collecting new parts for the ones deemed unusable.
"Old Biddy" is now ready for reassembly and this blog is chronicling the restoration. Thank you for visiting and enjoying this adventure with us.

About Me

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Winter’s
grip is tight this year so not much is getting done on the car. I decided to
relegate myself to doing a final parts check list and doing a few little
tasks to button the car up so parts do not jiggle off as I take her for her
first ride.

Such as, I
need the top fasteners for the front grille. They look like little lag bolts without
the point and they are only ¾” long. I checked my parts books and they are neither pictured
nor listed, so there is no part number that I could find.

They fit
here. The bottom three grille fasteners are easy to find.

I also
need the screws that hold the dashboard top panel pad sides in place. I think
they are part number RTL 812…the picture in the parts book was not exact. When
I disassembled the parts car, these fasteners were rusted in place and they
sadly had to be cut and therefore destroyed.

In the
back recesses of my cellar, I found the wheels that I want to get powder coated
(black) and fitted with new tires. The radial three tires on the rims now are
an Avon, a Dunlop SP4, and a King GT…quite a mismatched lot! I am taking
suggestions as to what tires I should purchase.

On our
next snow day off of school, I am finally going to clean the sun visors. They
are quite grungy. I have to see if these MG 1100 visors will even fit on to the
Austin America body or if some finagling is needed.

If anyone
has this hardware, please let me know. I will check around and keep everyone
updated. And so…the hunt continues. This winter I will be re-sorting all the 1100
parts in my cellar now that the car is near completion. Cannot wait to see if
any treasures pop up!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

We had
only one good day in the last two and a half weeks when the weather was worthy enough to do
any work on the car. Needless to say that winter looks like it is coming early
this year. Therefore, the decision was made to put the car to bed.

After
cleaning up our yard for hopefully the last time today, I pushed Old Biddy out
into the driveway to give her a quick rinse off and thorough rub down.

When done,
I started her up and drove her back in to cover her up for the season. I always
put sheets or old bedspreads underneath the outer cover for extra protection.
Her battery cables were then disconnected and I said “Night night.” to her.

This does
not mean I will stop working on the car for the winter. Oh no! There are still
many things that need to be attended to such as finding seatbelts, and cleaning
up the sun visors, and the never ending quest to find six of those lag bolt
looking things that attach the front grille on. I would love to hear from readers
on advice to find these parts. Stay tuned.

Friday, November 7, 2014

After
jumping through, over, and around hurdles the past three weeks, I was finally
able to get back to the local high school shop to fabricate the blanking panels.
These little parts have been holding up progress!

I made two
4 ¾” x 2 ¾” pieces of 18 gauge sheet metal which will become the bases for the
1100 strikers. I used the Austin America striker. as a pattern for the holes.

I brought
them home and screwed three ¼” x 28 screws into
the sliding bar nuts (located inside the pillars) to hold them in place. The passenger side
lined up beautifully!

And the
driver side took a little bit more patience to attach, but it fits nice now! Once everything is measured and mocked up on both sheet metal pieces, the holes will be countersunk so that the screws will tighten up flush to them.

The next step
will be to locate the position of the actual MG 1100 strikers and drill holes into the
sliding bar nuts to accept the screws. If the bar nut is not behind a new screw hole, nuts will be welded in place (onto
the new sheet metal bases) to accept the screws of the striker.

But first, although
the doors are already on the car, they still have to be aligned correctly and set up. Thus the reason for the blue tape, to protect the paint. Hopefully that
operation will get done within the next two weeks. It is already getting cold outside!!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

The last
thing to do before we take our maiden voyage in Old Biddy is to come up with a
plan to switch out the door latches.

The hole
pattern is for the Austin America door of which the body was originally.

The door
mechanism that is on this door is different from Austin America door. I still have the
original Austin America doors, so why not just put the Austin America
doors back on? Because the car is now an MG 1100 so I have MG 1100 doors.

The hole
pattern matches later style BMC latches but will not accept the MG 1100 door
mechanism.

I have the
original MG 1100 latches but the hole pattern does not match the Austin America
pattern.

I am
waiting for my 4 ¾” x 2 ¾” 16 gauge sheet metal pieces. Once I have those, I
can show the plan to rectify the situation. I apologize for the blurry
pictures. I think my camera needs to be recharged or it is finally wearing out
since it does not hold a charge for very long any more.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

It has
been crazy busy around here this past month. One Sunday afternoon (two weeks ago) my wife and I
managed to poke and prod at the rear windshield rubber gasket corners
until they finally seated in place. And, I did a couple other little things here and there
that were uninteresting and “unbloggable”. But finally, after trying to connect
with him for a few weeks, Chris came to pay a quick visit. In a flurry of
activity, we got a ton done!

But first, by request
from a blog reader, I promised to post a picture of Chris's homemade filet tool.
This instrument installed both of the locking strips into the front and rear windshield
rubber gaskets.

When he
was done using it today, the rear windshield looked like this.

Both of us
agreed that the quality of both the rubber and the mold for the rear gasket were
nowhere near as nice as the front windshield. And it shows by the gaps in this
corner.

Chris also
managed to find that there was a short in the steering wheel ground that
prevented the horns from working via the horn push. He just had to scrape a little corrosion off of the steering wheel hub. The horn system works beautifully
now!

And
finally, he adjusted the new choke cable so that it works smoothly from full open to full close. The old one
was just plain worn out.

The dashboard knob on the new
one has the fan picture on it. Somehow I have to get the original “C” back on
there. I will figure it out this winter.

Next I
will concentrate on getting the doors working properly. There is a lot to explain.
That project will start next week. Then, I can take her for her maiden
voyage!!!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

It is nice
to know how many people actually read this blog on occasion! I only have one
follower but receive many messages, some of encouragement and some with advice.
This week will be about a tip I received from a fellow ADO16 owner. He
suggested trying the age old “string method” to install the rear windshield. I
watched the “My Classic Car” YouTube video where two fellows install the rear
window of an old pickup truck. It looked easy enough! OK, I thought I would give it a try!

First
step, install the rubber seal onto the rear window. Check.

Next step,
put a string down in the groove of the rubber that will wrap around the car
metal, lubricate it with dish soap, tape the string in place to keep it from
falling out. Check.

Next step,
get my wife to help and convince her to get in the car to pull the strings
while I stand outside the car pushing on the rear window. Check. My wife did
not want her picture taken so we will skip to the next step.

Next step,
cuss and curse because the corners would not seat properly. Check.

The cord started
to dig into the rubber corner miters so we had to stop. We at least got the top
part installed so the window will not fall out.

This 90
degree corner requires another method besides the string method. Since the
window is not seated properly, the locking strips cannot be installed. I need
help on this one…and not just my wife.

I did
manage to find a Wingard rear view mirror in my MG Midget parts stock pile. I
had to paint the rod black since the mirror plastic was black.

But it
turned out fine even though it is not the original gray color.

To at least
feel good about something this week, I installed the rear view mirror. Shhh, please do not tell any concours judges or the "correct police" about the color. Maybe they will not notice.

I will have
to do some research and give a few phone calls for the rear windshield dilemma.
School is back in session so my time will be limited, yet, progressive.

Friday, August 29, 2014

The rear
windshield has been a pain of a project to say the least! I had to take it out
because the rubber seal gasket I used was too short and incorrect. I purchased
a new rubber seal and wanted to get it installed before I go back to work at
school.

My wife
and I tried and could only get so far. The top of the rubber gasket was not
cooperating. It kept falling off of the car body and would not go back in place.

I called
John over but after fifteen minutes of trying, we also failed. The window was then
taken out and set safely in the rear seat.

So I
decided to not let that hinder me on checking stuff off the punch list. I had only
two electrical issues left to finish on the car, the interior light and the horns. I
attacked the interior light issue first. I needed to screw in the door push switches
and then make sure all the purple (power) and purple with white stripe (switch grounding) wires were hooked up correctly. They were all good.

Even after
screwing the switches in to ground them, when I opened the door the light was still
not going on.

I had a brilliant
idea (or you can say the light bulb went off over my head) to check the
obvious. And, sure enough, both the fuse and the lamp (bulb) were blown. So I swapped them out. Only the horn and interior light hook up to this fuse (which has power from the battery (purple wire) all the time and does not need the ignition switch). Therefore, this also cures one of the reasons why the horn circuit was not working.

And,
viola!

The horns
were another issue. I just had them rebuilt this past winter so I knew the horn
units themselves were working. I figured it had to be a wiring issue (since the fuse was just changed). Here is
what I started with.

Since the
workshop manual had no information on how to correctly connect the purple (power) and purple with black stripe (horn switch grounding) wires, I did
some internet research and found out the right way to do it. So I swapped the
wires to look like this.

I then
went into the car and hooked a jumper wire to the purple with black stripe horn
wire and connected it to ground. The horns worked!! But after I put the horn
button in the steering wheel and pushed it, nothing happened. I figure that something
is amiss with the rotor (#16).

I put
another call into Chris to see if he will come to help me with the rear
windshield this week. I will have him check out the horn issue, too.